Happy Birthday, Baby!

I can't believe this girl is one. Today we woke up at 6:00 a.m. to the sweet sounds of her babbling to her sister.  Just like an alarm.  Couldn't you give me 20 more minutes of sleep?  Ugh. [See how parenthood has totally skewed my reality?  I'm not asking for hours more. I know what's probable.]  But my God, she's so cute in the morning--so enthusiastic and with those sweet eyes all puffy from her long night of sleep. Sometimes I still wake up and think "Wow, she's here."  Like waiting for the arrival of a long lost friend and you have to keep pinching yourself that you're together.  She's with us, and she completes our family like no one else could.  If I'd have written out the exact qualifications of a baby sister for Elisa, I could not have gotten a better baby.  She is patient and loving, calm and playful.  Sometimes I feel like it's all a fluke and she is just going to disappear. Is that weird?  I think it's because she's such a sweet, happy girl that it makes me feel like I don't deserve to have her. But over the course of the year we've been together, I've come to realize that I do.  Just as I could produce someone so completely sassy and melodramatic, I was also capable of making someone who was laid back and low maintenance. Easy to care for, easy to love.  It's not fair that she makes her sister look bad sometimes in comparison, but that's the way it goes.  

And just as I say that, I have to acknowledge that the quiet, tranquil baby Carolina is slowly evolving into the shrieking, opinionated toddler Carolina. She's still a doll, but she's letting us know more and more that there's a whole untapped wealth of personality under there.  And she does not like to be ignored.  It makes me so excited to think of conversations with her in another two years. Who is she?  Who is this girl that I can't stop hugging and wanting to squeeze?  As I once said about Elisa at this age, I love meeting her again and again every day.  Because every single day I learn something new about her and I love her more for it. Hard to believe, but it's true.  One year already.  Maybe because we really hit the ground running after her birth it has made the time go so much faster. Whatever it is, Carolina has reinforced my confidence as a mother and given me back some of the humor and playfulness that the three year-old has tested and worn out.  Celebrating her today was a pleasure.  I'm one lucky mama.